In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Winston Churchill High School
11300 Gainsborough Road
Potomac, Maryland
United States

Jeffrey Savett

Jeffrey Savett is a teacher, poet, husband, father, son and survivor. As a child, he was called on stage by David Copperfield to assist in sawing a woman in half. Somehow, he still convinced a woman to marry him. Diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in 1998, Jeffrey has undergone five major surgeries to help control his disease. He will talk about one of these this evening. As a dual English and Religious Studies major, Jeffrey graduated with a Degree of Distinction from University of Delaware in 1998. He completed a Master’s Degree in English while simultaneously becoming certified to teach Secondary English. During this time, Jeffrey began writing poetry seriously under his writing mentors Cruce Stark, Bernie Kaplan, and former Poet Laureate of Delaware, Fleda Brown. Under Brown, Jeffrey served as one of the first “Poets in Schools” program ambassadors. Jeffrey’s been teaching English at Churchill High School for 18 years. His poetry (under the name Akiva Savett) has been published widely to positive critical attention. His early work is collected in the chapbook Preservation published in 2013 by Moonbow Press and available on amazon.com. His recent work appears in The Orange Room Review, Gobbet, The Lake,Burningword Journal, Page & Spine, Poetry Quarterly, Kerem, Circa, and The Red River Review among others. In February, Jeffrey (Akiva!) was selected by Tupelo Quarterly to be one of its 30/30 Project poets: Jeffrey wrote a poem a day for the month, each of which was published on Tupelo’s website.

John Simon

John A. Simon is a Founder and Managing Partner of Total Impact Capital (TOTAL) and a Senior Director of the Medical Credit Fund, an impact debt financing vehicle that has deployed more than $30 million in loans to nearly 1,500 borrowers, with a presence in Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Ghana. Ambassador Simon is also the Vice Chair of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Malaria, and Tuberculosis. Prior to starting Total and joining the Medical Credit Fund, Ambassador Simon was a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development, where he co-authored More than Money, a report on impact investing as a development tool. Previously, Ambassador Simon held a variety of posts in the US federal government, including serving as the United States Ambassador to the African Union, the Executive Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Relief, Stabilization, and Development at the White House.

Sarah Dietrich

Sarah Dietrich works on the network operations group for the Earth Observing Satellites at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She is a self-taught computer coder who mentors for Girls Who Code Howard County with BeYou Inc. Sarah has published 6 peer reviewed research articles on human and animal behavior while training dogs, dolphins, and the occasional undergraduate student. She holds a master’s degree in Communication from SUNY Buffalo and a BA in Psychology from McDaniel College.

Shahab Kaviani

Shahab is a social entrepreneur with over a 15 years of experience starting, scaling, and exiting companies. Shahab currently serves as Director of Social Connectedness Innovations at AARP Foundation. Most recently he co-founded Breezio, a community engagement platform, where he now serves as an adviser and board member. Prior to Breezio, Shahab was co-founder and CEO of CoFoundersLab, which merged in 2014 to create Onevest - an equity crowdfunding platform headquartered in NYC. CoFoundersLab has become one of the largest communities of entrepreneurs in the world with more than 400,000 members worldwide. Prior to CoFoundersLab, Shahab co-founded HyperOffice, where he led product and marketing; he operated the startup for over 7 years serving more than 500,000 customers worldwide, prior to its successful exit. Shahab's passion is in helping to build and foster the innovation economy, having founded a youth entrepreneurship program for Montgomery County, serving as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland teaching International Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and previously serving as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Startup Maryland. Shahab speaks around the world on the subjects of entrepreneurship, building startup teams, and fundraising. He earned his BA in Economics from University of Maryland, College Park.

Wafa Raja

Wafa grew up in Pakistan and moved to USA almost ten years ago. She studied Fine Art and pursued her passion as an artist until she decided to switch careers and explore creativity in Engineering. She then pursued her Undergrad in Information systems. Her second career as a Cyber Systems Engineer at Northrop Grumman provides her with the opportunity to use creativity in a technical role as an engineer. She has been involved with the promotion of cultural diversity and works on programs to support STEM education for girls around the world.